"Samuel Friederson is it?" said a bald headed man quietly, "It's a pleasure to meet you - Captain"
There was little light in the room, most of it coming from the blue window which tinted everything in the room in a dark deep blue reaching foremost across the shinny desk and going little further.
"A pleasure to do duty sir!" said Sam leaning across the desk the two smiled and shook hands.
"I have to say," said the man at the desk glancing up at Sam who was wearing a suit, and then down at the papers, "...That you are older than I expected. Still no harm ever came to that"
"True! Back when I worked aboard the Battleship Titanic we had a saying that a Captain's only as good as the number of grey hairs on his head"
"A good saying!" laughed the man, "What post did you serve aboard that ship?"
"Vice Captain sir. Before that I was 2nd Engine post on the Battleship Norad"
"Ah yes of course it was you who held a post on that ship. An interesting history is wrapped up around Norad you know. Do you know where Norad is working now?"
"No sir," replied Sam honestly, "I do not"
"Shortly after you left Norad, it became the command ship for the general Edmund Duke. It was upgraded with a liquid hyrathrane nuclear plating and now sadly after Mengsk's revolution resides still with Edmund Duke at the other side of the galaxy"
"I'm sorry to hear that sir," said Sam
"Stop calling me sir captain! Currently you hold no post in the UED but if you sign this form that I'm about to give you then I'll be calling you sir! A pity for Norad indeed. You had quite a jump from Engine corps to Vice Captain..."
"It was quite a long time ago now," laughed Sam, "But I'm up for it all the same"
"Indeed," nodded the man, "Normally of course we don't except people your age in the UED but a position of Captain or higher is treated differently. You will find Captain I am certain to be a much bigger leap than you expect, far more than Engine corps to vice captain. Here's the form," he said putting a long piece of paper forward.
Sam took the paper and began reading. He looked around briefly with a worried look on his face, "Sorry is there a pen I could er..."
"Here take mine," said the man giving him an expensive looking fountain pen. Sam put his signature on the dotted lines and smiling handed the paper back to the man.
"Well done Captain," smiled the man, "You made the right decision. Report back here in a week and we'll start the preparations in getting you acquainted with your crew and ship. I think you will find that the Battleship has changed quite substantially since when you were last in command. The results of the modern Battleship are quite impressive to say the least"
"Thank you sir, I mean..."
"The name's Mr.Mead. It was a pleasure meeting you Captain Friederman"
"Aye aye to that," laughed the captain
Elated Sam left the room and came out into the waiting room where various men and women some dressed up in camouflage were waiting to see some official of sorts. A speaker sounded with a short chime.
"Please will engine team four and the staff of runway six please report immediately to generator five for a core-temperature check-up"
It was much brighter out here than in the office. Why that had been Samuel wasn't entirely sure. Some people just didn't like fresh air and light. Passing through automatic doors Sam passed down a long plastic corridor that was completely see through. Below him vast streams of traffic were passing on one of the main roads that passed through the star port. Turning and glancing briefly at a complicated sign he entered through electric sliding doors into the cafeteria. Finding the table he sat down with Betty who was wearing a red dress. Her dark hair was done up in a bun so that the grey strands seemed ever more present. She was crying.
"Oh Betty!" sighed Sam putting his arm round her, "It won't be for long you know that don't you! Chin up girl! I'll be back before you know it"
"Sam I don't want to lose you!" she sobbed, "I hope you're making the right decision"
"Of course I am dear! There's no greater act than to serve one's people. I'm not going to die Betty"
"But people die in war Sam! That's what happens!" she said tears streaming down her eyes
"Listen," he said lifting her chin so that her eyes faced his, "When was the last time you heard of a Battleship crashing?"
She shook her head, "You don't remember right? Battleships don't get shot down, they're just too big an object to get blown out of the sky. Even so it won't be me doing the fighting. Most of the time the Battleships stay out of the battles which are done by you know, the grunts. Wraiths and Vulkerie fighters move in and obliterate air forces while Siege Tanks, infantry and those Vulture bikes take the ground. Battleships are like mountains Betty. People run down them to attack the enemy. We just stay put and defend the air space above the battleground. If things get too hot then most of the time Battleships pull out and leave long before they take any serious damage"
"I know, I know!" she cried, "But I'm still going to miss you Sam,"
"And I'll miss you too Betty but I'll be back you'll see. Its my last chance Betty! In a few years time they're going to pass a law stopping old 'geezers' like me from going in to battle"
"I wish they'd pass it now," she said dryly
"Oh Betty!" he chuckled, "You always were such a spoil sport. I'll send a virtu-mail every day while I'm away and keep you informed as to what we're doing. Think of the money Betty and all the holidays we can go on"
"I'm going to miss you," she sighed putting her arms round him
"I'll miss you too Betty," he whispered, "Mengsk won't last a second against the UED"
"I hope you're right," she replied
The days passed in a frenzy of preparation and soon Sam found himself through the week and out the other side. Betty waved good-bye for the last time as he set off with a first class ticket on the Super Train. When he arrived at the station he took a cab to the entrance of Kal Faruga star port. He had never actually been to Kal Faruga before the time he had had the interview with Mr.Mead. It was a large Starport used a lot less by the public. It was a large port but a large section of it was cut out especially for the military which was why civilians didn't use it as much. During the coming war the airport had commissioned extra runways to be set aside for the growing orbitary fleet. Usually other Starports were used for civilians visiting colonies like NewGatwick. Apparently space travel tickets had gone up to pay for the war or at least that was what the newspapers were all implying. It was lucky Sam was part of the war and not planning on traveling by him self. His lips smiled as he thought of being in command of a fully operational Battleship.
He walked in to the entrance of the second military runway where Iliad was docked. After passing up several escalators and asking for advice at information desks he came to corridor forty two where he met with a man in a suit who shook his hand.
"Hello, you must be Samuel Friederson am I right?"
"That's right," replied Sam shaking the hand firmly
"Follow me and I'll take you to your apartment for the night"
They passed up yet another escalator and passed another huge blue window where the battleship could be seen docked with people swarming over it cleaning and preparing.
"Is that her?" asked Sam
"That's the one," grinned the man, "A fine beauty. Every Battleship is unique as I'm sure you know. Iliad though is a fine craft. You're one of ten captains to be trying out the new steering engine they've installed. Anti-gravity phasar markers or something - I'm sure the engineers can give you a better explanation of it than I can"
"How many crew members are there?" asked Sam warily
"Twenty five in all. Amazing isn't it? I find it incredible how such a huge ship can be manned by such few people"
"It used to be seventeen in my day. Why the extras?"
"New regulations. The Battleship Excalibur took off for the moon, to deliver Uranium for the construction of nuclear missiles. As you know its illegal to manufacture them on the planet... anyway mid flight it was revealed that the oysters that fifteen members of the crew had eaten on a maiden voyage feast hadn't been all that fresh. Three crew members died including the two on board doctors. Nine others were incapacitated and the Battleship was held in orbit round the moon for an entire month while the authorities organized a team to be sent up to help out. The Battleship at the worst could have crashed into the moon base with the Uranium. It was headline news - I'm sure you remember it"
"I do," replied Sam, "I remember that incident very well"
"Authorities insisted that we have the extra crew members just in case such an event were to happen again. Ah I believe this is your room," he said opening an electric door with his presence. Samuel walked into the tiny room and looked at the bed.
"Its … cozy," he grimaced
"You won't be here for long captain. The tryouts begin tomorrow; General flight patterns, intercourse between ships etc. Day after is a standard navigation of warp speed. Repair simulations, battle simulations should such an unlikely event occur and of course information on the primary weapon the yamato gun. With all that I'm sure we can refresh your memory"
"Is it just er..."
"You taking the tests? No sir. All Captains must endure these basic training programs just to acquaint them with the ship before they take off. You aren't the only senior person to be a Captain in the fleet. The general himself is quite old - but anyway I will leave you to your rest. There's a computer you can use on the desk. Load it in the morning and it should bring up your timetable and additional information automatically. If I were you I'd go through some of the information on the Iliad this evening"
"Thank you," replied Sam with a nod
"My pleasure," replied the man and leaving the small cubicle door slid shut with an electric hiss.
Sam gazed out of the dark green tinted window at the Battleship. He pressed a button and the small window moved to one side. It was too small to jump out of, presumably something the starport staff had thought of. Still a small child could easily fit through the window - not that children would be working in the military department of Kal Faruga starport. After finding the roaring wind that coursed through too much along with the noise of distant speakers and huge engines roaring he eventually closed it so that the noise was completely silenced.
Sitting down he turned the computer on. It loaded instantly and a female voice spoke, "Please present eye for military iris scan"
Sam did so a small flash of light passed over his line of sight in less than a second. It was hardly bright enough to hurt. Several companies selling iris-scanning technology had been sued when the invention was first issued on the markets for damaging people's eyesight. There were still discussions about the medical problems today on whether it was a good thing or not. It had mostly been refined to military activity now after the group called Secure Liberty had virtually forced the world government to act and reduce security cameras and other hindrances to people's privacy.
"Welcome Captain Friederson," said the computer voice, "You have not been with us for some time. Would you like me to update you with the basics of the Battleship Iliad, the changes that have been made in design, the changes in vocabulary command, or the advanced standard schematics?"
Sam tapped his finger on the screen on the 'vocabulary' option. A screen came up showing a hastily made 3d modeled captain talking to crewmembers. A red light flashed on the side of the computer.
"Sorry to interrupt you Captain but you have a transmission connection awaiting. Would you like to pause the simulation and connect or continue with the simulation?"
Samuel clicked on the 'pause' button and waited as the red light continued to flash.
"Please lift receiver," said the voice
Sam looked around for the receiver. He lifted up a pen pot to look underneath but it wasn't there.
"Please lift receiver," repeated the voice exactly the same half a minute later
"Where is the bloody receiver?" he growled
"Voice command recognized," said the computer, "Receiver is located to your left"
"Heh this thing comes with voice command?" chuckled Sam and finding the receiver he picked up the headphones and put them on.
"Hello?" he said
"Hey Dad! Is that you?" said the voice
"Sarah! What the devil are you doing ringing me up?"
"Keep your hair on dad!" laughed the girl's voice, "I'm only checking up on you! I can't believe you're going back into the army!"
Sam sighed and slouched, "Are you disappointed?"
"No," she chuckled, "surprised but not disappointed I guess. You sure you're up for it all? I mean you are getting on a bit"
"You're as old as you feel Sarah how many times have I told you that? Now don't you worry about me I'm going to be just fine"
"Mother's shitting bricks," laughed Sarah. Sam's face cringed but he overlooked her choice of language.
"You'll never guess what!"
"What?"
"They've hired me to represent UED network for the news broadcasts. Can you believe that? It's a huge promotion!"
"That's great Sarah!" beamed Sam, "That's wonderful. It makes me proud of you!"
"Thanks dad," she giggled down the phone, "Apparently I'm attractively adequate!"
"Heh, you are a pretty little thing you know that? Its wonderful for me to see you on the television every now and again. I want you to just keep going the way you are. I bet the boys are all over you aren't they?"
"Don't make me embarrassed Daddy!" she laughed, "Besides I'm ringing because of you not me. I'm worried about you going out there by yourself"
"If its by myself you're worried about then you needn't be. There's going to be minions and technicians advising me constantly. Heh I doubt I'll get a moments peace on the entire trip but boy you will laugh if you found out how much they're paying me"
"How much?" she asked frankly
"Don't you be so damn nosey!" he ordered down the phone, "Enough okay? Anyway when you finally decide to get married they'll be plenty enough for a decent honeymoon when I've finished this job"
"I love you dad," she said down the phone, "Don't get hurt okay?"
"Since when did kids start advising their fathers? Alright sweet-heart I'll be careful for you. For me you be careful at mealtimes. They won't let you on TV if you get obese"
"Dad!"
"Just kidding honey. I love you too. Listen you can send me a virtu mail any time you like. I'll send you some as well if you like"
"Alright. I'll speak to you later"
"See you honey. Good luck with the job!"
"You too!"
"Bye!"
Putting the receiver down Samuel smiled and clicked on the 'resume' button. It was a big day tomorrow.
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Stuff: Thanks for reading. I know you Starcraft people are big on grammar so if I've made some Grammer mistakes please tell me exactly how I've done them so I can do something about it. I hope you like it so far.